Chapter 22 – Sunshine #2
Suddenly, I heard a different kind of thunder behind me. A horse running at full speed right at me. Was it Shirley? Had she spooked?
I took off, trying to look over my shoulder to see how close I was to being trampled, when I felt an arm circle around my back and ribcage and lift me up so that I was planted in Tag’s lap, both legs on the one side of Diablo’s saddle, with my side and shoulder pressed into his chest.
All at a full gallop.
“Tag!” I screamed. How in the world had he done that?
“Hold on, darlin,” he shouted, loud enough I could hear him above the wind, rain and thunder.
“Shirley!”
“I’ve got her,” he rumbled into my ear.
And somehow, he did. Shirley was keeping pace on Diablo’s right flank even as he rode Diablo at a full gallop.
Tag had her reins and Diablo’s reins in one hand.
His other hand was firmly wrapped around my ribcage, holding me in place against him.
I’d never imagined I could ever move so fast on a horse, never imagined being completely out of control as Diablo ate up the grass and dirt in front of us like he was running for his life.
Thunder crackled overhead again and I planted my hands on my head to hold my hat in place and felt the rain sting my cheeks, it was coming down so hard.
It felt like hours, but I knew it was only about ten minutes until the paddock and the massive barn behind it came into view.
Mac and Carter were at the edge of the paddock, both covered in sensible rain gear, both of them standing on either side of the gate that was already open for Tag.
Tag dropped Shirley’s reins and let her take the lead through the gate first, while Diablo followed after her. Mac quickly took hold of her loose reins and began cooling her down as he slowly brought her from a run, to a slower canter, until she was walking.
Tag pulled Diablo to a hard stop and lifted me off the saddle, and with a small jump I was once again on solid ground.
My knees felt weak and I was breathing heavily, even though Diablo had done all the work.
“Carter!” Tag bellowed over the storm. “Take Diablo!”
Carter grabbed Diablo’s reins at the same time Tag wrapped his hand around my upper arm and practically dragged me toward one of the ATVs situated just outside the paddock.
“I can drive myself back to the Lodge if you need to see to the horses!” I was still shouting over the torrential rain that was falling all around us in sheets, even as I climbed on to the back of the machine behind him.
He didn’t say anything. Just started the engine and accelerated, while the wheels spun for a second in the grass and dirt that had turned into mud. Eventually, the tire treads grabbed hold and we jerked forward and took off at a speed way faster than anything I’d attempted on my own.
Tag pulled up to his cabin and it was all I could do to hold onto him. I was soaked to the skin and shaking from the cold. He shut down the four wheeler and pulled me off the back, holding me against him as he ran up his front steps.
“Pop?” I said, through numb lips.
“He’s not home,” Tag growled. “He flew back to Florida this morning. Some plumbing problem with his condo.”
“Oh, no. I hope it’s nothing serious,” I said inanely, shivering and dripping in the middle of his living room.
“Shower! Now!”
I turned abruptly, thinking that was the first time I’d heard Tag shout at me. Well, at least inside. He’d shouted at me plenty when I hopped off Shirley to get my hat.
I took my hat off and saw how thoroughly drenched it was, too. I wondered if this material dried properly. But it had to, right? Or, what was the point?
I didn’t have much time to think on it before Tag had his hand wrapped around my arm again, firmly, but not too hard, and was pulling me to his bedroom.
“I know where the shower is,” I said.
He wasn’t having it. He took me into the bathroom and turned the water on in the shower and cranked the heat on. He pushed me down onto the toilet seat and dropped to his knees to work my boots off.
The scowl on his face was real.
“Arrre you maddd?” I asked, through chattering teeth.
He looked up at me, all dark and broody. “You risked your life for a fucking hat.”
“It was haarrrdly rrrisking my lllife,” I said. “Annddd, ittt wasn’ttt abouttt the hattt.”
“What was it about, then?”
I didn’t know how to answer him. It was like that hat represented my place in Last Hope Gulch, and when it flew off my head, my chance of belonging here went with it. It was ridiculous. I knew that. But I liked that hat.
He stood me up and unbuckled my belt, unsnapped my jeans, his hands were hot against my icy skin as he yanked them off my body.
“If you’d seen how close that fucking lightning strike came to you,” he barked at me as he pulled my shirt and bra off. Naked, he pushed me into the shower and the steamy hot water was a wonderful release.
“I haddd toooo gettt ittt,” I said, letting the hot water do its thing .
“This is Wyoming, princess, not fucking New York,” Tag said, stripping his own soaked clothes. “A flash storm comes on you like that, you take it seriously.”
He got into the shower with me, but still made sure I was directly under the stream of hot water. He rubbed my arms and my legs, and after a few minutes, my teeth chattering eased.
“I’m sorry I scared you,” I said, tilting my head back as he worked shampoo into my hair. Giving me possibly the best scalp massage I’d ever had.
“You’re going to pay for it,” he said, his tone low and menacing.
So dark a tingle shot down my spine. “Really?”
“Close your eyes.”
I did and just enjoyed the luxury of being pampered. After he’d washed and conditioned my hair, rubbed body wash up and down every limb, I felt nearly boneless.
Before the hot water ran out, he turned off the shower, pulled a towel off the rack and dried me as thoroughly as he’d washed me.
“You warm enough?” he asked, as he brushed my hair away from my face until it was all slicked back.
“Perfect,” I purred.
He led me out of the bathroom and went to his dresser drawer. He pulled on a pair of sweatpants for himself and tossed a large flannel shirt in my direction.
“Put that on,” he said.
He didn’t have to ask me twice. I pushed my arms through the sleeves and snapped up the front of the shirt. It was warm and fell to my knees, but I was going to need to dry my clothes if I was going to get back to the Lodge.
“Do you have a washing machine and dryer in the cabin?” I asked .
“We’ll deal with that shit later,” he said gruffly, as he sat on the bed. “Now you’re going to pay for scaring the shit out of me.”
I pressed myself between his knees and cupped his face in my hands. “I said I was sorry,” I reminded him.
“Not good enough, Sunshine. Lie across my lap. Ass up.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Don’t you lift that eyebrow at me. You’re going to lie across my lap and I’m going to tan your ass. And if you take it like a good girl, I’ll make you come so hard you’ll see stars. But I’ve got to work off some of this adrenaline, that you caused me, out of my system.”
I stepped back from his knees, my fingers toying with the hem of his flannel shirt as I pretended to consider his offer. Of course, I was going to do this, I was soaking wet at just the thought.
His hand stroked up my leg, brushing against my upper thigh, circling my butt cheek.
“Right here, darlin,” he said, patting his thigh.
I did as he asked and laid myself over his lap. Reaching behind me, I slowly pulled up the ends of his shirt so that my ass was bare.
I could feel his cock hard against my belly.
Slap!
“That’s for not listening to me when I told you what to do,” he growled.
One perfect strike on my right butt cheek. I squirmed on his lap.
Slap!
“That’s for chasing a damn hat in a lightning storm. ”
This time on my left butt cheek. Not really hard, but the sting and the sound combined into something so filthy, so perfect, my brain went quiet.
All the noise – gone. He kept going until I wasn’t responsible for saving the ranch.
I wasn’t worried about my partners finding out what I was doing in Last Hope.
I wasn’t worried about how I was going to try and rebuild my relationship with my mother and my sisters when I went back to New York.
There was just Tag.
Finally, he laid his heavy palm over the hot skin and rubbed it, digging in with his fingers and making me moan so loud I was afraid his pop might hear me all the way in Florida.
“That’s my girl,” Tag muttered, moving his hand to the small of my back, pressing his fingers deep into the muscles there, too.
“Ohhhhh, God! Please don’t stop.”
“No?” he asked, continuing his deep tissue massage, only this time into that space right where my upper thigh met the underside of my ass cheek. It was tender and sore and every brush of his fingers lit me up from the inside.
“No! Please don’t stop.”
“Okay, but then I can’t fuck you now, can I?”
I spread my thighs, letting his fingers have access to my pussy if he wanted.
“Now, darlin, that seems like a fine idea for you, but not so much for me.”
I turned my head so I could look up to see his face. He was watching his fingers do their dance along my back and ass and thighs. “What do you want?”
He met my eyes. “I want you to come sit on my cock and ride me until I come.”
I scrambled off his lap and straddled his thighs. He stood up, holding me, my thighs clinging to his hips like he was my very own stud, and with one hand pushed down his sweatpants. Then he sat back down on the bed, took his dick in hand, and lined it up with my pussy.
“Watch this part, darlin,” he muttered. “Watch your pussy swallow my dick.”
I did. My hands on his shoulders, he’d unsnapped the bottom part of his shirt so I could watch while he pushed inside me. A few heavy thrusts and he was seated deep. Then he sat still. Too still.
“Tag,” I breathed, trying to push myself against him. “What are you waiting for?”
“First, I want a proper apology,” he said, looking into my eyes. “Tell me you’re sorry, then kiss me.”
“I’m sorry I scared you,” I said again. Then, for the first time, I kissed him.
I was tentative at first because it all seemed so much.
His scratchy cheeks, his firm jaw. I slipped my tongue between his lips and his mouth was hot and wet and I never wanted to not be kissing Tag Durham.
Any fantasy I’d ever had of him as a teenage girl didn’t touch the reality.
He pulled back, assessing me like I hadn’t satisfied his demands.
“What else do you want?” I asked him.
There it was. That dark spark in his eyes because he knew, in that moment, I was his. He could tell me to do anything and I would do it.
“Let me see those pretty tits.”
I reached for the top button and pulled the shirt apart, listening to the snap, snap, snap, as the shirt came undone. Completely exposed before him.
“Good girl,” he said, and then took my hands, moved them behind me until each of my palms was gripping his knees. “Now ride me. Hard.”
Tentatively, I moved my hips in a circle and felt the power of him shift inside me.
“Oh,” I said, understanding now what this meant.
“That’s right,” he said, his gaze fixed where our two bodies met. “You want to come, you’re going to have to work my dick real good, because I don’t have any interest in helping you. I’m still half pissed.”
My fingers dug into his knees as I twisted my hips in small circles first. I wanted to tease him. I wanted to break him. I wanted him to lose control and take over because he couldn’t help himself.
Only, that moment never came.
His hands behind his back, bracing himself, he just stared at my face, my bouncing breasts, my pussy where it was desperately fucking his cock.
It was all too much. “I’m going to come.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready to allow that,” he said, darkly. “I don’t think you’ve earned it.”
That was enough to set me off. The orgasm came over me like the flash storm. Sudden and violent. I screamed against his shoulder, my arms clinging to him. My mouth open against his skin where I could taste the salt of his sweat. Every part of me was his. Every sense. There was now and nothing else.
“Tag,” I whispered, so soft I wasn’t sure he could hear me. “Thank you.”
Like I’d pulled the trigger, he exploded into motion. He lifted me, tossed me on the bed so that I was on my belly. He lifted my hips high in the air and fucked into me from behind .
I grabbed the bed sheets and tried to brace myself. Hold myself steady. Still.
His hips slapped against my sore ass and it only added to the fever racing through my body. His hand reached between my legs and I wanted to tell him I couldn’t possibly orgasm again, but when his thumb found my sensitive clit, I did.
“Tag!”
“That’s it, baby. Oh, fuck, you squeeze me so hard!”
I grabbed his hip, feeling the power of him fucking me as he thrust once, then again, shouting as his own orgasm overtook him. When it was over, he slid out of me and fell onto the bed next to me, while I collapsed face first into the pillow.
I turned my head to the side, only to find him watching me.
“Worth it,” I smiled.
He lifted his eyebrow.
“I would go back for that hat any time.”
He chuckled and shook his head.
“Sunshine, you’re going to kill me,” he sighed.
“Well,” I said, feeling replete and cocky. “At least you’ll die a happy man.”
He smiled at me, his eyes warm and soft. Here in this bed, we’d found shelter from all the storms raging outside.